A Berea woman is facing a first-degree wanton endangerment charge, accused of leaving her children in a car for 30 minutes while she was inside a store.

On Sunday, Berea police were dispatched to the Dollar General on Richmond Road to investigate the report of three small children, ages 4, 2 and 1, left in a vehicle.

Officers found the vehicle and the driver as she returned to her car, the police report stated.

Stevi Clontz, 24, told police that she had left her children in the car with the motor running, according to the police report. Clontz told police she asked a man in the parking lot "she didn't know very well" to watch the children, but witnesses told police they never saw anyone around the car.

Clontz was charged with first-degree wanton endangerment and was taken to the Madison County jail, where she remained Tuesday afternoon, according to the jail's online records.